Hanukkah massacre in Sydney is a warning to all Western governments: Islamist extremism needs to be confronted

 

On December 14, two Islamic gunmen attacked a Hanukkah festival at Bondi beach in Sydney, Australia. Two armed assailants opened fire during a large “Chanukah by the Sea” celebration marking the first night of Hanukkah, killing at least 16 people and wounding 40, including two police officers, according to local authorities.

 

This was a tragedy waiting to happen. For the past two years – since the brutal invasion of Israel by Hamas and other Islamist extremists on 7 October 2023 – there has been an explosion of antisemitic hate speech in Australia, and of physical attacks on Jewish persons and synagogues. Jewish leaders in Australia have been warning the Australian government to take rigorous action to confront antisemitism, especially emanating from radical Islamist cells operating in the country. Instead, the government dithered. Worse, its constant criticism of Israel, and failure to condemn verbal and physical aggression against Jews propagated by Islamist terror groups, have sent a message that hate speech is OK and extremism and antisemitism are tolerable.

The Bondi beach massacre is what “globalizing the intifada” looks like. It is a warning to all Western governments that fail to confront the spread of Islamist ideologies in their populations.

One of the most articulate and powerful responses to the massacre was by the Global Imams Council, which clearly stated,

 

“when Islamist hatred is normalized, incitement excused and extremists are tolerated under cover of politics, slogans and cowardly silence, violence is inevitable. What begins as chants and threats inevitably ends in blood.”

 

The Jewish community in Australia – and many others in Australia and beyond – are furious. Former Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has “personal responsibility” for Sunday’s terror attack, blasting the premier’s lack of accountability for rising antisemitism and accusing him of “abandoning” the Jewish community. Frydenberg, who is Jewish and served in the Liberal-led government as treasurer and deputy leader from 2018 to 2022, blamed Albanese for the “all too predictable” massacre of Australia’s Jewish community.

“We need answers, we need solutions, we need action,” he asserted, taking issue with Albanese’s vow to enact stricter gun control laws in the wake of the shooting, saying that

 

“guns may have stolen the life of 15 innocent civilians, but it was radical Islamist ideology that pulled the trigger.”

 

“Prime minister, you have failed us. Your government has failed us,” he concluded. “If you don’t want to do the job, give it to somebody who will.”

US sanctions more ICC judges for targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the Trump administration is sanctioning two more judges of the International Criminal Court for targeting Israel. The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, and both countries argue that the ICC has no power to investigate or prosecute their citizens. “Today, I am designating two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia, pursuant to Executive Order 14203,” Rubio says in a statement, referring to the order President Donald Trump signed in February sanctioning the ICC. “These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent,” he says.

Lack of progress in Gaza peace plan

Frustrations are growing about the lack of progress in implementing the Trump peace plan in Gaza. The US is telling interlocutors that it has secured commitments from Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany to have their leaders join US President Donald Trump on the Board of Peace that will oversee the postwar management of Gaza, four officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel. However, this does not mean they will commit troops on the ground to join the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which has been tasked with demilitarizing Hamas.

Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorists violated the ceasefire in Gaza 12 times between December 4 and December 18, and 64 times since its implementation on October 10, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reports.

This week, US Central Command (CENTCOM) hosted a conference in the Qatari capital of Doha involving dozens of nations to discuss the next phases of the peace plan. However, as the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies has reported –

“the talks, which centered around the deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to the enclave, were largely inconclusive. The attendeesfailedto agree on the composition of the would-be peacekeeping force or its duties, according to European officials. The United States has
deliveredformal requests to over 70 nations to volunteer troops and supplies for the deployment of the ISF, but no country has yet committed soldiers. The Trump administration has acknowledged that reaching its goal of recruiting 10,000 troops for the ISF may take most of 2026. The countries currently in talks with Washington are, thus far, only willing to deploy soldiers in the Israeli-controlled side of the “Yellow Line” that demarcates IDF-held territory from areas still under Hamas’s control.”

This week, pray for the survivors of the massacre in Sydney. Pray that the Lord will protect the Jewish community in Australia and around the world. Pray for our governments in Western countries, that they may have the courage and wisdom to defend our Judeo-Christian values and confront all forms of antisemitic hatred including Islamist extremism.

We are living in extremely challenging and difficult times.

Christians around the world grieve together with the Jewish community in Australia for the precious people who lost their lives at Bondi beach. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

May we all look to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – for His protection and for the speedy coming of His Messiah, who will bring in His kingdom of peace and justice. He will rule over the nations, and wipe away the tears from all eyes.

Israel & Christians Today is having a short break, we’ll be back online early January 2026.

We wish all our readers a blessed holiday season and New Year.

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Bondi beach and how false legal narratives contribute to the killing of Jews

Andrew Tucker at thinc.: Over the last two years, the Australian government and mainstream media have failed abysmally to condemn anti-Zionist rhetoric. Worse, their constant criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian statehood – without unambiguously condemning Palestinian and Islamist extremism – have contributed to an atmosphere where hate-filled radicals think they can do whatever they want.
> Read more..

Bondi Beach is a warning Canada cannot ignore

Alan Kessel in The Hub: “Foreign-policy choices have domestic consequences. When governments insist antisemitism is being “taken seriously,” even as Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centres require constant police protection, the message received is one of minimization. When chants calling for Israel’s destruction are explained away as political speech, and when hatred on our streets is downplayed as the regrettable but inevitable spillover of global events, Jewish citizens are left feeling exposed and unheard. Bondi Beach exposes the fallacy underlying this approach. Antisemitism does not need official endorsement to flourish. It needs only moral ambiguity from those in authority. When governments indulge legal warfare against Israel while allowing hostility faced by Jews to flourish at home, they embolden the most radical voices and signal that their worldview is not beyond the pale.”
> Read more..

The ‘Multicultural’ Terrorist Threat Inside Europe: The Exported War No One Wants to Name

Pierre Rehov at Gatestone: “When Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency publicly revealed in November 2025 that it had helped European countries expose a Hamas terrorist infrastructure “in the heart of Europe” – including weapons caches and plans to hit Jewish and Israeli targets – it simply confirmed what intelligence professionals have warned since October 7, 2023: The war in the Gaza Strip is no longer local. It has been exported, operationally, to European soil.”
> Read more..

Australia’s Government: ‘Moral Bankruptcy on Parade’

Nils Haug at Gatestone: “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government alienates Australia’s Jewish community by favoring the Palestinian cause – never mind that no one ever advocates for those living under the rule of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to have freedom of speech and of the press, and freedom from arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial executions. The Australian government has been fast-tracking hundreds of potentially dangerous Palestinians and other Islamists into the country without proper vetting. Meanwhile, many of Israel’s official representatives are regarded as ‘personae non gratae’ and barred entry to countries in the West that should know better.”
> Read more..

The tragedy of multiculturalism

Dr. Augusto Zimmerman in The Spectator Australia: “‘Diversity is strength; tolerance is natural,’ says the Prime Minister of Australia on his official website. This may be a lovely statement, but it is not supported by historical evidence. To the contrary, history clearly teaches us that too much ‘diversity’ is a leading cause of social conflict and national fragmentation … Many Western nations, especially in Western Europe, can no longer be described as possessing any meaningful sense of common identity and national heritage. All that these European nations now possess are incohesive political entities formed by competing tribes based on a sense of identity of their own, living largely in virtually segregated communities and competing for social resources in an increasingly excessive and violent way. These Western European nations have, therefore, entered a period of ‘cultural suicide’.”
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Israel approves $34 billion natural-gas deal with Egypt

JNS: “Jerusalem signs its largest-ever gas export deal with Chevron and partners, solidifying its role as a regional energy hub.”
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US envoy: UNSC focus on ‘settlements’ distracts from threats to peace

While the United Nations Security Council held its quarterly meeting to condemn Israeli “settlements,” Washington declared the sessions a waste of time. Jennifer Locetta, the U.S. alternative representative for special political affairs to the U.N., said the sessions focusing on Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem illegal, “only distract from pressing threats to international peace and security.”
> Read more..